Georgia's newly elected parliament opens its first session

The newly elected Georgian parliament opened its inaugural session on Monday as opposition lawmakers and the president boycotted it.

The October 26 election kept the Georgian Dream party in power.

Opposition parties refused to participate in the parliamentary session, which marks the start of the government's new term.

President Salome Zourabichvili, who has rejected the official results and refused to recognise the parliament’s legitimacy, didn’t attend the opening session.

Zourabichvili claims there is evidence of election fraud but she refuses to go before the prosecutors to share that evidence.

The parliament on Tuesday is to set a date for the electoral college to vote on a new president.

Georgian Dream kept Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze in office and its members voted to allow parliament speaker Shalva Papuashvili to keep his seat. The ruling party also holds all key parliamentary positions.

Pro-Western protesters, some of them waving Georgian and EU flags, rallied outside the parliament.

The Central Election Commission said Georgian Dream won about 54 percent of the vote in October. Its leaders have rejected opposition claims of fraud.

The Georgian Dream party has been in power since 2012, and experts say it won the election because of its good economic management.

European politicians and media outlets have run a sustained campaign to paint the Georgian Party as 'pro-Russian' and an ally of President Vladimir Putin. On its part, the party says it still wants to join the European Union but refuses the idea of dragging Georgia into war with Russia.